Investment in Generative AI, Automation & Advanced Analytics is Key to Business Survival in 2024

• Sabio strengthens position as leader in digital transformation, Artificial Intelligence and customer / employee experiences at its Madrid Disrupt event 
• Event attracted star Spanish speakers such as the Carlos Santana (Dot CSV) and astronaut Sara García Alonso. 

Investment in Artificial Intelligence, automation and advanced analytics are emerging as crucial factors for business survival. 

This was the key takeaway from Sabio Group’s annual Spanish Disrupt event in Madrid recently, which is dedicated to the latest developments in digital transformation in Customer and Employee Experience. 

Held once again at the La Casa del Lector (Matadero Madrid), the event brought together more than 500 industry professionals and leading brands from sectors as diverse as telecommunications, customer service, utilities, insurance, security and banking. 

Opportunities and Grand Challenges in the Age of Artificial Intelligence 

Hosted by renowned Spanish journalist and TV presenter, Angie Rigueiro, Sabio’s Disrupt began with a vivid example of the innovative use of digital humans through the AI-created avatars of Steve Jobs and Barack Obama. Alongside Stuart Dorman, Sabio’s Chief Innovation Officer, the unusual trio explained the impressive technological development that we are experiencing from the beginning of digitalisation to the arrival of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its great impact on society - demonstrating its ability to enrich Customer Service and Customer Experience. 

The AI Revolution: A total transformation of our society

Disrupt Madrid also featured the participation of one of Spain’s most disruptive influencers on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Carlos Santana, known for his YouTube channel 'Dot CSV' –  which has  more than one million subscribers - explored the radical transformation that AI is bringing to all areas of our society.  

“From the emergence of deep learning in 2012 to the explosion of Generative AI, with the famous GPT Chat, the ability of machines to learn and generate patterns has reached unimaginable levels. AI is reinventing entire industries at breakneck speed. Robots, for example, now become obsolete in a few months, in fact, they retire before humans do,” joked the expert. 

However, the real revolution lies in AI's ability to understand and generate all kinds of content, from hyper-realistic images, text, live language translation, to artificial music generation and production. "With tools like DALL-E, content creation has become more accessible and faster than ever, although it is not without controversy about the possible replacement of certain professional profiles," added Carlos. 

As the youtuber acknowledged, AI poses challenges and risks: "Its ability to understand any kind of data and generate results can be both impressive and unsettling. How far will this technology go? The line between human and artificial is blurring, and it is likely that in the near future, avatars will serve customers and advertising will be personalised in a truly persuasive way.” 

One thing is clear to Carlos: AI is transforming every aspect of our society, from how we work to how we interact with technology. He continued: “While the uncertainty of whether AI will replace us may make us uneasy, it also offers us the opportunity to focus on tasks of greater human value.” Ultimately, AI disruption challenges us to rethink our relationship with technology and consider the possibility of reinventing ourselves in more technological profiles. 

Generative AI, data and personalisation as key to the development of the Customer Experience

Disrupt Madrid saw the inclusion of different panel discussions with leading brands in the industry. During the “We are Sabio” panel, different company professionals shared the relevance of listening and understanding the real needs of brands and their customers, in order to correctly guide their strategies towards those particular objectives. 

Afterwards, the meeting focused on "Opportunities to scale and optimise CX with Generative AI", a panel in which the importance for brands to invest in this technology as a competitive advantage was discussed. Representatives from companies such as PwC, Vodafone, Adamo, Pluxee and AXA Partners highlighted the complexity of its implementation due to the current lack of historical data infrastructure and the need to build a solid Business Case to justify the investment in Generative AI. In addition, the importance of taking care of data privacy, risk assessment and control over models has been highlighted as essential aspects to consider in order to properly leverage the potential of Generative AI. 

Next, under the title "Challenges for transforming interactions into data and accelerating the adoption of AI", representatives from Cionet, WiZink, MásMóvil, Vodafone, Verint and Katoid took to the stage, highlighting how data analytics has emerged as the engine that today drives all business operations. However, to realise the full potential of advanced analytics, sufficient volumes of high-quality data are crucial. This has led companies to look for new ways to collect, analyse and use all the information generated from customer interactions. 

The day also included a fascinating debate discussing the “Challenges for personalisation with AI across all customer channels" to highlight the evidence of how customers are demanding increasingly personalised interactions, expecting consistency and fluidity at every point of contact and across all channels: chats, calls, Whatsapp, etc. Thus, Accenture, World2Meet, Parques Reunidos, CaixaBank, Kisio and Genesys have driven the adoption of emerging technologies to offer differentiated, hyper-personalised experiences adapted to each of our customers. 

Research pushed to its limits

Disrupt culminated with the exciting participation of Sara García Alonso, the first Spanish woman astronaut to be selected as a member of the European Space Agency (ESA) Astronaut Reserve, who drew a parallel between investment in research and space missions, which represent a challenge to scientific and technological limits, with multidisciplinary projects that apply the most advanced technology. 

The researcher at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) underlined the crucial importance of research in various fields, from biotechnology, medicine and oncological advances with the design of personalised drugs to fields as diverse as weather prediction, the fight against climate crisis, agricultural development or satellite communication, in which AI plays a fundamental role.  

“Research will take us into space, because technology is what moves the world,” said Sara. She continued: “investment in science and technology not only promotes the future wealth of a country, but also drives progress and benefits society as a whole.”